MONITORING THE HYDROGEN RELEASE FROM COAL LIQUID SOLVENTS USING A HYDROGEN PROBE

A hydrogen probe made of nickel tubing has been used to monitor the release of hydrogen from coal liquid solvents at elevated temperatures and pressures. A knowledge of this release rate is helpful in determining the overall hydrogen balance for coal liquefaction operations, in choosing among alternative solvents and in evaluating the validity of model compounds. The hydrogen release was found for coal liquids to reach a constant value when the reactor temperature was steady. In the case of some model compounds the amount of hydrogen released continued to increase and equilibrium was not attained during a 10 hours measurement period. For the coal liquids the total pressure of the system was found to increase sharply with time indicating the production of gases other than hydrogen, while for the model compounds the total pressure increases were almost parallel to the increases of the hydrogen partial pressure. A correlation was developed for the percentage of hydrogen released with the aromatic fraction distribution in the coal liquids. The hydrogen probe was a valuable instrument for continuously following the hydrogen changes in these dehydrogenation experiments.